Marianela Nuñez

 Marianela was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She started dance lessons at the age of three and at eight joined the Instituto Superior de Arte of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires where she studied until she was invited to join the corps de ballet of the Company at the age of 14. She was selected to take part in a tour of Argentina as a Soloist with the Ballet Clasico de la Habama, Cuba. In 1997 Maximiliano Guerra chose her as his partner to dance with him in Uruguay, Spain, Italy and at the World Ballet Festival of Japan. She was then invited to tour with the ballet company of Teatro Colón in Europe and the US as a guest ballerina.

In September 1997 she joined the Graduate Course at The Royal Ballet School and at the end of the year danced the leading female role in Kenneth MacMillan’s Soirée Musicale at Dame Ninette de Valois’ 100th Birthday Gala as well as the title role in Raymonda Act III and the Third Shadow solo in La Bayadère at the School’s performances. She joined The Royal Ballet at the start of the 1998/99 Season, aged 16 and was promoted to First Soloist in 2001 and made a Principal in September 2002.

Since joining The Royal Ballet Marianela has performed Kenneth MacMillan’s Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, the second movement pas de deux in Concerto, Marie Larisch in Mayerling, Elite Syncopations and Lescaut’s Mistress in Manon.

Her Frederick Ashton repertoire includes the title roles in Cinderella and Sylvia, for which she was one of three ballerinas selected to recreate the role when the production was brought back into The Royal Ballet’s repertory in 2004, Lise in La Fille Mal Gardee, Monotones I, the lead couple in Les Rendevous and Isabel Fritton in Enigma Variations.

Marianela’s Balanchine repertory includes the 1st pas de trios in Agon, Polyhimnia in Apollo, the Tchaikovsky pas de deux, the Diamonds pas de deux in Jewels, the Waltz girl in Serenade, the lead couple in the 2nd movement of Symphony in C, the lead female role in Tzigane and Choleric in Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments.

She has also danced the Black Queen in Checkmate, the title role and Queen of the Willies in Peter Wrights Giselle and The Sugar Plum Fairy in his production of The Nutcracker, Odette/Odile in Anthony Dowell’s production of Swan Lake, Kitri in Nureyev’s production of Don Quixote, Olga in John Cranko’s Onegin, the lead couple in Stephen Baynes’ Beyond Bach, Anthony Tudor’s The Leaves are Fading, Nikiya and Gamzatti in Natalia Makova’s production of La Bayadere, Aurora and the Lilac Fairy in Monica Mason and Christopher Wheeldon’s production of The Sleeping Beauty, Nacho Duato’s Por Vos Muero, William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated, Jiří Kylián’s Sinfonietta, the Queen of Fire in Christopher Wheeldon’s Fire Variation in Homage to the Queen, the solo girl in Alastair Marriott’s Tanglewood, Glen Tetly’s Voluntaries and the title role in Sphinx, Johan Kobborg’s production of Napoli Divertissments, ‘Scherzo’ in Jerome Robbins’s Dances at a Gathering and the pas de deux in his Serenade, the 1st Song Couple in Michael Corder’s L’Invitation au voyage and Christopher Wheeldon’s Electric Counterpoint.

Marianela has created principal roles in Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV (Danse à grande vitesse) (2006), Wayne McGregor’s Infra (2008) and Limen (2009) and Liam Scarlett’s Asphodel Meadows (2010).

Her television appearances include the BBC Broadcast of Daphnis and Chloë and La Fille mal gardée (BBC2, Feb 2005). And her performances as Lise in La Fille Mal Gardee, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Queen of the Willies in Giselle, the Lilac Fairy in the The Sleeping Beauty and 2nd movement pas de deux in Concerto have been released on DVD.

In 2006 Marianela won Best Female Dancer at the Critics Circle Dance awards and she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in 2007. In 2010 she was awarded with the coveted Argentinean Konex prize for best dancer.

Marianela has made several guest appearances in festivals and galas including La Scala, Milan and the World Festival, Japan